The Just City (Thessaly, #1)

by Jo Walton

“Thousands of people like us lived and died and made no difference.

It seems it’s because men achieve so much more in their lives, and they couldn’t be missed from them until they were near to death, whereas most women might as well not exist for all the individual contribution most of us get to make to history.”

My ignorance is vast and profound. I like to know at least what I do not know.”

But why justice, not happiness, or liberty or any other excellence? What was justice really?

Know yourself. You are worth knowing. Examine your life. The unexamined life is not worth living. Be aware that other people have equal significance. Give them the space to make their own choices, and let their choices count as you want them to let your choices count. Remember that excellence has no stopping point and keep on pursuing it. Make art that can last and that says something nobody else can say. Live the best life you can, and become the best self you can. You cannot know which of your actions is the lever that will move worlds. Not even Necessity knows all ends. Know yourself.